“The following article/review of Liquishot was translated and adapted from Grinta! page. Author: Bart Vandermaelen and published on 17th of August 2022.”
You can read the original review HERE.
A clean bike is a fast bike and that means you have to tackle your ride with a bucket and sponge once in a while. Whether you like it or not. Although there are solutions that make the job a lot easier. The Liquishot 25.1, a Slovenian-made portable pressure washer, is one such solution. We were allowed to test one for several weeks! You can read what we thought of it here.
Now and then, we come across a test product at the editorial office that we are hooked on in no time. The Liquishot 25.1 is one of those. This portable pressure sprayer makes it easy to clean your bike wherever you are. It weighs only 1.3 kilograms, runs on batteries and is very compact to store and carry. The Liquishot is a Slovenian-made device and if the website is to be believed, Tadej Pogacar is also a fan. Although we doubt he often polishes his bike himself after training in Monaco.
Economical in water and energy consumption
The Liquishot 25.1 looks a bit like a drill to which you connect a garden hose.
Don’t have a water supply nearby? No problem; you can order a set of accessories with the Liquishot. It also includes a foldable bucket and a piece of garden hose about three metres long with a filter at the end. So the pressure washer can also pump water from a bucket, which is hugely useful when you want to spray clean your cross, gravel or mountain bike somewhere in the field before putting it in your car. Or when you don’t have an outdoor tap in the garden and have no other option but to fetch water indoors. One filled bucket is enough for one clean, by the way.
This makes the Liquishot much more economical than, say, an ordinary garden hose. And it is not just in terms of water consumption that the device is economical: the batteries also last a long time. With one charged battery, I could clean my bike no less than five times. You charge that battery the way you usually do with a screwdriver: you just click it off the handle and then connect it to the charging station provided. Over the battery is a wetsuit-like protective cover to protect the electrodes from any water that might seep in.
‘Say hello to my little friend’
When I clean my bike, I normally first spray it wet with the garden hose, then soap it with the sponge. Afterwards, I bring out the Gardena again to rinse away the soap residue and dry the bike. But the Liquishot lets you be even more efficient, as it can also pump soap water straight from a bucket. So you don’t necessarily have to attack your bike with a sponge anymore: the soapy water and water jet normally do all the work for you.
The pressure delivered by the Liquishot is adjustable with a knob at the back of the device and is limited to a safe maximum of 25 bar. To be fair, I have used the Liquishot almost exclusively on that highest setting. Fire away! Or as Tony Montana in Scarface would say: ‘Say hello to my little friend!’ Although, as with any pressure washer and garden hose, it is best to exercise caution around the bottom bracket, the steering head and the wheel hubs. So don’t throw away your sponges and rags just yet, but use them to rub your bike clean around those vulnerable areas.
Spray lances galore
My test sample came with an extensive accessory package. Besides the garden hose with filter and the collapsible bucket, I was also supplied with a pack of spray nozzles and smaller nozzles: a pulsating dirt sprayer, a spray lance whose width of spray can be adjusted using a rotary knob, an attachment for spraying at a certain angle, and three shorter nozzles to clip onto that intermediate attachment, but which do the same thing as the long spray nozzles.
Honestly: I found that rather too much of a good thing. It would almost give a person choice stress. All the more so because I caught myself using only the two long spray lances effectively: I used the pulsating head to tackle stubborn dirt on the frame and the wide jet of water from the adjustable spray head was ideal for soaping and cleaning my bike. In itself, that collection of nozzles looks nice, but in practice, I certainly did not find them all necessary. Handy though: you don’t have to keep the ‘trigger’ pressed all the time while spraying. With a small button above it, you can lock that too. A detail, but one that provides some extra comfort when cleaning.
Conclusion
The Liquishot 25.1 pleased me immensely. The device is robust and compact and the battery lasts a nice long time. The fact that you can also pump and spray soapy water directly from a bucket, I find super convenient. The 25-bar working pressure provides enough power to spray the dirt off your bike, but at the same time, you don’t have to worry too much about damaging anything. Although with a pressurised water jet, it is always better to stay away from the bottom bracket, steering head and wheel bearings.
I find a large number of spray lances in the accessory pack ‘overkill.’ You could certainly do with less. But on the other hand: for 690 euros, it’s better to get one accessory too many than too few. After all, that price is immediately the Liquishot’s biggest drawback. I can imagine that the average cyclist would rather buy a completely new outfit or a bike upgrade for that money than a device to clean with. Even though it is an enormously handy and high-quality gadget, such a price tag is still a serious stumbling block.
GRINTA!
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